Chapter 2 : Allen Styles

Allen was in his compact gloomy dusty room, removing his bandages and diligently cleaning his wounds. He was taking ample care of himself and was constantly accessing his injuries to see the progress.

'I am healing much faster, Even though this body looks fragile and weak, it's pretty sturdy and very fit.' Allen reapplied various medicinal herbs mixture as he surveyed his body by moving it around.

As of now, it's no longer a problem to walk around a bit. But his main concern was something else, although the body looked fine on a superficial examination, there are plenty of hidden injuries all over his body.

This isn't a new issue instead, an accumulated problem throughout this body's lifetime.

And with further improper care it would cause difficulties later on, as he is young it doesn't matter for now but it would surely come around later.

Previously, right after being assaulted and injured the real Allen immediately came to his dormitory room in a very bad shape, where the caretaker patched him even through it was unprofessional and clumsy, beggars can't be choosers.

They also provided meals for him time to time along with medicine, which he definitely has to pay from his own pocket.

This isn't anything they did from the goodness of their hearts, rather it is their job. Although Allen's session is over and he is no longer a student, but technically until the graduation he would not stop receiving the benefits of one.

Currently Allen is in an educational institution called the Silver Moon Academy which was situated at the northern part of the Academy Sector. It offered courses in multiple disciplines and was ranked the fourth among ten or so academies in Alwis City and tenth among all the academies on the Aryana Continent.

Aryana Continent, this is the name of the place Allen is in. This is vast world which has an old western like life style and culture with a primitive development and almost no modern research.

This world is extremely big lots of secrets and mysterious things, there are various conflicts and war all fought over to obtain lands and resources. There is a strict distinction between noble and commoners overall, but this isn't something one would see in Alwis City.

Alwis City is an anomaly in whole of the continent as it is a democratic land, at least the definition of democracy people have in this world.

This is an extremely large city with total occupied area matching and even dwarfing a few countries. No one know for sure why is it called a city when it's such a huge place. There are various speculation that the man who revolutionized the whole continent and established a safe heaven for commoners, oppressed, merchants and slaves wanted to forever remind the future generations about the struggle and sacrifices and their humble beginnings.

The Alwis City is neighbours with an Imperial domain called Karrion Empire. This is the territory from which the founders of Alwis City revolted and established the Alwis City, which is now one of the greatest powers and largest territory in all of the Aryana Continent.

This city is the centre of commerce, technology, development, education and power. There is no commoner and no Noble, all are treated the same. After the years of struggle for existence and conclusion of battle to establish their reign, The Alwis City allowed entry of everyone from all the parts of the world.

The Alwis City finds its place in the continent for being unique and welcoming, many students travel far and wide to attend the prestigious and reputable academies of the Alwis City.

One such student is Allen Styles who precisely, came from the northern parts of the Karrion Empire; He is from the north most area which are the highlands.

The highlands are located thousands of kilometers from here, which is way too far and impractical for soldiers over there to come over, the territory itself is vary barren with low population and very few resources hence, the northern people never battle against others even though they are technically from Karrion Empire, their presence is almost nil.

The travel itself would take more than six months. His father was a baron and his barony was situated in the far north. He have an elder brother as well as a younger brother, that would make him the second son, which means there won't be inheriting the barony at any rate.

The fact that he is so far out here means that his family has abandoned him. Allen had to rely on himself for five years from a tender age of twelve to till now, he is about to turn seventeen and also graduate.

After his admission and first year he has lost all contact with his family. After the first year, he even had to pay the fees himself.

That's why he could be consider as citizen of Alwis and have nothing to do with the north or his family.

He isn't lonely in such a fate, many nobles send away every child but the heir to the land to prevent infighting and strife, usually by means of exile, separation or marriage.

Allen's case is pretty common. After all, his father is not the usual honorary baron but rather a hereditary noble which is a very big deal for Nobles.

Allen isn't a very likable person, more worse he is also more talented than both of his brother. This was a huge problem and after he made that one hideous mistake, for the first time in their prestigious centuries long history the Styles family banished a legitimate child of their own like this.

'Struggle, greed, anger, hate, war and agony it seems like the world changes but humans don't. It's good that this guy is pretty lucky, although his family isn't rich even poorer than some small merchants but he is a noble born, had a decent talent and a better start than others.'

'He is neither forced to fight an one man army monster nor a target of an old monster. Life isn't so bad here.' Allen got up and properly dressed his injuries, he didn't bother with the injuries and neither the one who inflicted them because it wasn't the true intention of his aggressors.

It was just a brawl between youngsters which elevated into a big deal, Allen wasn't innocent either. There isn't a cliche third grade villian after him, sure he is not liked much but no big deal.

Allen fully-dressed with his only proper clothes and wore his boots, He then looked at the sword in his hand. This sword was the only good thing he got from his family, it's a very fairly good quality weapon which his ancestors won as a spoils of war.

It has been in the family for years and was finally given to Allen. He touched the the sharp edges of the sword with his nails and as a result his nails were cut. He gave it a swing and pinned his sword to his belt buckle. Ruffling his wallet and waist pouch, he checked if he left any belongings in the room before locking the doors behind him and heading downstairs.

Allen stood right in front of the main entrance of the academy. The entrance of the academy had no gates or doors. It only consisted of the statue and a sign that led straight into the academy.

A few teenagers wearing the uniform of the academy came over from upfront. They should all be freshmen. Allen recalled that the recruitment day was almost one month ago.

As he watched these teenagers jump around in excitement, he reminisced his own times as a student here five years ago. Time really flows quickly and unceasingly. His time to stay in the cheap dorms are over, after a week or so he has to collect his stuff and leave.

The academy was already benevolent to not force him away in his injured state.

Allen looked at the new recruitment, all of them were here with many expectations and desire in their hearts. They wanted to achieve something, to reach greatness, fulfill their dreams and most wanted to become a revered Battle Warriors.

On the Aryana Continent, There is a class of warriors who can use special powers called the Battle Force.

One's Battle Force and swordsmanship represented one's strength and position. They are generally far more powerful than normal people and has ability to reach greater heights.

The user and wielder of this fantastic ability is not just anybody as only a few have this ability when compared to the total population. Usually these people are nobles and people of greater statute, Talent plays a vital role in this as well.

There are five different ranks of Battle Force included Bronze, Iron, Copper, Silver and Gold, which were further divided into five sub-levels for each rank.

Beyond that was the level of Blademaster and Sword Saints. But those realms of Battle Warriors are generally out of reach of common practitioners.

Actually it was the support of elite swordsmen like them only that made the establishment of Alwis City possible.

Various Blademaster combined forces against the cruelty and oppression of the Karrion Empire bringing about the uprising of a new system and created this place. All the headmasters of every prestigious academy must be a Blademaster for him to join the race of being on top list.

As for the unfathomable Sword Saints, they are far and few so much so that they are even rumours for commoners but although they aren't easy to meet, they do exists.

People like Allen who are considered talented in the barren North are just mediocre here, He is stuck at the Five Star Iron rank for more than two years which is a bit unusual.

To break through the bottleneck and reach Blademaster level, it requires deep levels of insight and extremely rich battle Aura.

This bottleneck is considered the bane of innumerable Gold ranks, one has to reach a level of understanding and knowledge and the criteria is different for everyone so, one couldn't be helped either.

Similarly when one reaches the Five Star level of their rank, their Battle Aura would also need to be refined in order to break through to the next rank.

This isn't a huge problem at lower levels and someone like Allen should be able to break through by now especially with his talents but he couldn't and hence, he was harshly berated in the academy.

This treatment is also because he was extremely cold, temperamental and arrogant.